Geoff Greenwood, Communications Director
515-281-6699, geoff.greenwood@iowa.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, August 4, 2011

Judge Penalizes Hawarden Producer for
Manure Discharge & Land Application

(DES MOINES, Iowa)   A Sioux County judge ordered a Hawarden company to pay a $15,000 penalty following a cattle manure discharge and manure land application that polluted a Sioux County tributary.

On March 26, 2010 the Iowa Department of Natural Resources responded to a report of a manure discharge into a tributary of Six Mile Creek, according to a petition filed Wednesday by Attorney General Tom Miller. A DNR investigation determined that Haverhals Farms, Inc., a 3,500-head cattle operation, land-applied approximately 950,000 gallons of manure. An undetermined amount flowed into the unnamed tributary.

In a consent decree filed Wednesday in Sioux County District Court, Haverhals Farms and owner Peter Haverhals admit discharging and land-applying manure that caused surface or groundwater pollution.  District Court Judge Edward A. Jacobson ordered Haverhals Farms and owner Peter Haverhals to pay a $15,000 civil penalty.  The judge also ordered the defendants to comply with state laws that protect Iowa waterways and groundwater.

Iowa law prohibits a feedlot operation with more than 1,000 livestock from discharging manure or effluent into waterways without a permit, and land-applied effluent must be applied in a manner that will not cause pollution of surface water or groundwater.

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